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Friday, June 30, 2017

The Macavity Awards are nominated by members of Mystery Readers International, subscribers to Mystery Readers Journal and friends of MRI. The winners will be announced at opening ceremonies at Bouchercon in Toronto, Thursday, October 12. Congratulations to all.

If you're a member of MRI or a subscriber to MRJ or a friend of MRI, you will receive a ballot on August 1, so get reading. To check if you're eligible to vote, leave a comment below with your email.

Best Nonfiction
• Mastering Suspense, Structure, and Plot: How to Write Gripping Stories that Keep Readers on the Edge of Their Seats, by Jane K. Cleland (Writer's Digest Books)
• Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life, by Ruth Franklin (Liveright Publishing)
• Sara Paretsky: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction, Margaret Kinsman (McFarland)
• Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man Who Wrote Dracula, by David J. Skal (Liveright Publishing)
• The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer, by Kate Summerscale (Penguin)

William Shaw is an award-winning pop culture journalist, who has written regularly for the UK's Observer and Independent, as well as the New York Times. He is the author of the Breen and Tozer series and THE BIRDWATCHER. Shaw lives in Sussex, England.

William Shaw:The Importance of Getting Up and Walking Around

You can’t overestimate the importance of getting up and walking around a little.

If you think writing is all about sitting at a computer and banging out words, you’re wrong. My kids, when they see me wandering around the house, or strumming an instrument with a vacant expression on my face, snigger and say, ‘Yeah. Writing again, is he?’

But most of the ideas don’t happen when you’re sitting down at a desk.

And it’s doubly true of crime writing, because crime writing is as much about creating an atmosphere as it is about problem solving. How do you get your protagonist from A to B without C knowing? Surely C would know that B murdered A because he was in the next room. When I wrote The Birdwatcher I let people know right away in the first two paragraphs that William South, the hero and good guy, was a also murderer. This was a fantastic opening, but it left me with a host of structural problems to fix about how long I could delay the reader knowing who he had killed. As a result, I had two plots, one in the 1970s and one in the present day and for a while they were tangling together without really working.

The Birdwatcher took a lot of getting up and walking around, but it worked.

I finished the book at a writing shack I have down in the English county of Devon. It’s off-grid and there are a lot of low-level tasks that need doing, like stoking the fire, or putting rainwater into the filter. I write for a while, putter around, write some more. There is a limit to the amount of writing I can physically do there because my laptop works off a single solar panel. I was doing the washing up which requires getting rainwater and heating it on the stove first when realised I had figured out a way in which the two plots came together like I had meant it all along.

The thing is, I can’t even remember thinking the thought. It was just there.

Psychologists call it the creative unconscious. They’ve even proved how well it works. Back in 2006 two Dutch scientists, Ap Dijksterhuis and Teun Meurs, did an experiment in which they gave participants three minutes to think of as many uses as they could for a simple object like a brick or a paperclip.

Half the group were given the chance to complete the job uninterrupted. The other half were given a second task – such as counting backwards in threes. Both groups produced a similar number of ideas, but the ones who were distracted produced ideas that were more divergent – or, to put it another way, more creative. In other words, not thinking directly about something can produce more interesting results.

We haven’t a clue how this works; we just know it does. It’s reassuring to realise that the brain is much weirder than you might imagine it is. Fans of Artificial Intelligence who imagine we’re approaching the singularity take note.

That day I ran out of the shack whooping with glee. What a great ending, I thought. The funny thing is, it’s not even like I can give myself credit for thinking of the solution. It just happened.

A methodical, diligent and exceptionally bright detective,
William South is an avid birdwatcher and trusted figure in his small
town on the rugged Kentish coast. He also lives with the deeply buried
secret that, as a child in Northern Ireland, he may have killed a man.
When a fellow birdwatcher is found murdered in his remote home, South's
world flips. The culprit seems to be a drifter from South's childhood;
the victim was the only person connecting South to his early crime; and a
troubled, vivacious new female sergeant has been relocated from London
and assigned to work with South. As the hero investigates, he must work
ever-harder to keep his own connections to the victim, and his past, a
secret

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Deadly Ink mystery conference announced that Ilene Schneider's Yom Killer (Aakenbaaken & Kent) was the winner of the David Award, presented for best mystery published in 2016.

Other David Award Nominees
Blonde Ice, by R. G. Belsky (Atria)
Written Off, by E. J. Copperman (Crooked Lane)
Death of a Toy Soldier, by Barbara Early (Crooked Lane)
Seconds to Live, by Melinda Leigh (Montlake Romance)

Deadly Ink was held June 16 to 18 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Rockaway, New Jersey.

If you're like me, you felt short-changed by Midsomer Murders, Series 19, Part 1 that aired on AcornTV recently. There were only 4 episodes. But now, starting July 17, there will be 2 more episodes. AcornTV is calling it Midsomer Murders, Series 19, Part 2. Not sure why there was a delay or why there are only 2 episodes this time around, but I've seen them both, and they're great. O.K. this series can never go wrong in my opinion. It's so entertaining, and I enjoy the 'guest' stars. The two new feature-length episodes include Death by Persuasion and The Curse of the Ninth. They both star Neil Dudgeon as Detective Chief Inspector John Barnaby.

Summertime, and the living is easy. Or is it? So many mysteries taking place during Summer are filled with murder and mayhem -- on the Beach, at the Lake, and in the City! What follows is a list of Summer Crime Fiction that exudes the heat and the accompanying crime of Summertime. I've omitted Fourth of July and Labor Day from this list, but I'll be updating those lists later this Summer. As always I invite you to add any titles I've missed. This is far from a definitive list, but it's been updated since last year.

Summer Mysteries

Foxglove Summer by Ban AaronovitchThe Corpse with the Garnet Face by Cathy Ace A Cat on a Beach Blanket by Lydia AdamsonMoon Water Madness by Glynn Marsh Alam A Tangled June by Neil AlbertGone Gull by Donna Andrews Gold Medal Threat by Michael Balkind (Kids: 7-15)A Midsummer Night's Killing by Trevor BarnesMilwaukee Summers Can Be Deadly by Kathleen Anne BarrettSummertime News by Dick BelskyThe Summer School Mystery by Josephine Bell Jaws by Peter Benchley (maybe not quite a mystery, but a good read, especially at the Beach)Bittersweet by Miranda Beverly-WhittemoreMurder by Fireworks by Susan BernhardtA Death in Summer by Benjamin BlackAnother Man's Ground by Claire Booth The Down East Murders by J.S. BorthwickRoyal Flush by Rhys Bowen Deadly Readings by Laura Bradford The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley The Cat Who Saw Stars, The Cat Who Went Up the Creek by Lilian Jackson BraunChill of Summer by Carol BrennanDevils Island by Carl BrookinsKiller in Crinolines by Duffy BrownScrappy Summer by Mollie Cox Bryan Magic and Macaroons by Bailey CatesTwanged, Zapped by Carol Higgins Clark Remember Me by Mary Higgins ClarkThin Air by Ann Cleeves Dead and Berried by Peg Cochran All You Need is Fudge, To Fudge or not to Fudge by Nancy Coco Beach Music by Pat ConroyPostmortem by Patricia CornwellDeath on a Summer Night by Matthew CostelloMurder Most Frothy by Cleo Coyle A Shoot on Martha's Vineyard by Philip Craig The Trouble with a Hot Summer by Camilla CrespiNever Say Pie by Carol Culver Barkley's Treasure, Bikines in Paradise by Kathi DaleyThe Alpine Recluse by Mary DalheimThe Diva Steals a Chocolate Kiss by Krista DavisA Summer in the Twenties by Peter DickinsonThe Gold Coast, Plum Island by Nelson DeMilleKilt at the Highland Games by Kaitlyn Dunnett Killer Heat by Linda FairsteinBlackberry Burial, Dying for Strawberries by Sharon FarrowMurder Sends a Postcard by Christy Fifield The Angel of Knowlton Park by Kate FloraLord James Harrington and the Summer Mystery by Lynn FlorkiewiczApple Turnover Murder, Blackberry Pie Murder, Carrot Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke Beneath the Skin by Nicci FrenchA Dish Best Served Cold by Rosie Genova Murder Makes Waves by Anne GeorgeThe Caleb Cove Mystery Series (3 in the series) by Mahrie Reid GlabA Fatal Fleece, Angora Alibi by Sally GoldenbaumDead Days of Summer by Carolyn Hart A Stitch in Crime by Betty Hechtman The Summer of Dead Toys by Antonio HillSummer of the Big Bachi by Naomi HiraharaCracked to Death by Cheryl Holton Murder at Wrightsville Beach by Ellen Elizabeth Hunter Magic Hour by Susan Isaacs Death in Holy Orders by P.D. JamesA Summer for Dying by Jamie KatzThe Foxglove Killings by Tara Kelly (YA)Rainy Day Women by Kay KendellSummer House with Swimming Pool by Herman Koch A Timely Vision by Joyce and Jim Lavene Midsummer Malice by M.D. LakeDark Nantucket Noon by Jane LangtonThe Bottoms by Joe LansdaleA Tale of Two Biddies by Kylie Logan Murder on the Ile Sordou by M.L. LongworthAugust Moon, June Bug by Jess Lourey Nun But the Brave by Alice LoweeceyBerried to the Hilt, Death runs Adrift by Karen MacInerny A Demon Summer by G.M. Malliet Swimming Alone by Nina Mansfield (YA)Death in a Mood Indigo by Francine Mathews Murder at Beechwood by Alyssa MaxwellTill Death Do Us Bark by Judi McCoyTippy Toe Murder by Leslie Meier Murder Most Finicky by Liz MugaveroFoal Play by Kathryn O'Sullivan The Body in the Lighthouse by Katherine Hall PageMercury's Rise by Ann Parker The Heat of the Moon by Sandra ParshallBeach House by James PattersonSummer of the Dragon by Elizabeth Peters5 Dan Marlowe/Hampton Beach, NH mysteries by Jed PowerMurder at Honeysuckle Hotel by Rose Pressey In the Dead of the Summer; How I Spent My Summer Vacation by Gillian RobertsCalamity @the Carwash by Sharon RoseMint Juleps, Mayhem, and Murder by Sara Rosett Boiled Over, Clammed Up by Barbara Ross Hang My Head & Cry by Elena Santangelo Miss Lizzie by Walter SatterthwaitVacations Can Be Murder by Connie SheltonBushel Full of Murder, If Onions Could Spring Leeks by Paige SheltonPick Your Poison; The Cat, The Vagabond and The Victim by Leann Sweeney Cape Cod Mystery by Phoebe Atwood Taylor A Fine Summer's Day by Charles ToddDeception in the Cotswolds by Rebecca Tope Board Stiff by Elaine VietsShadows of a Down East Summer, Thread and Gone by Lea Wait Trail of Secrets by Laura Wolfe (YA)An Old Faithful Murder, Remodelled to Death by Valerie WolzienOrchid Beach by Stuart Woods Sins of a Shaker Summer by Deborah WoodworthSummer Will End by Dorian YeagerHeart of Stone by James Ziskin

Monday, June 26, 2017

Michael Pronko’s Tokyo-based mystery, The Last Train, was released May 31, 2017. Michael is the author of three collections of award-winning writings on Tokyo Life, Beauty and Chaos, Tokyo’s Mystery Deepens, and Motions and Moments, the latter won twelve indie press awards. He is a professor of American Literature and Culture at Meiji Gakuin University, in Tokyo, where he has lived for the last twenty years. He also writes about jazz on his site Jazz in Japan. He is currently working on the next mystery in the series, Japan Hand, due out in early 2018.
www.michaelpronko.com
@pronkomichael
www.facebook.com/pronkoauthor/

Michael Pronko: Writing Setting, Writing Tokyo

Setting is one of the trickiest parts of writing a novel. It can enrich a scene or dampen it, act as a springboard or a wall. When I set my mystery, The Last Train, in Tokyo, I wondered how much readers would have seen of Tokyo, if anything. “Lost in Translation” maybe? I knew the setting was integral to the story, but how to get that across to readers with only a few telling, or rather showing, images?

I had it easy when I wrote columns about Tokyo life from a foreigner’s point of view for Newsweek Japan. The readers of the Japanese-language column were mainly Tokyoites, so I could skip a lot of description. If I wrote, “ramen shop counter,” everyone in Tokyo knows just what that looks like and what happens there. If I wrote, “large sake bottle,” people know what the size and shape and color is, how one pours from the big bottle into a teensy cup. So, how to choose the right details for readers who have never been to a sake bar or to Tokyo at all? That was the challenge.

Action helps immensely. When I write a Tokyo setting, certain actions make sense: taking trains, looking up at the buildings, weaving through the crowds. So, I included those actions as part of the overall setting, and integrated them into the story. Typical, everyday action adds to the static descriptions of setting to make it come alive. Tokyo without the ceaseless trains, blinking neon and fast-moving crowds would not be Tokyo. The dynamism of each setting keeps it from becoming static description and helps the reader feel that this action—and this story—could only take place in this setting.

When writing about Tokyo for people who may have never been there, it is hard to know which details work best, and in what proportion. Too much detail and the setting sinks like a dead weight. Too little detail and the story could take place anywhere. I’ve lived in Tokyo for twenty years, so when I started working on the settings, I spent a lot of time thinking back to my first impressions of the city. I also watched tourists (there’s been a tourist boom recently) to see what they were looking at, and imagining what grabbed them. When I write the first draft, I always slather on way too many details. I jam in every color, object, smell, size and sound I can. But then on successive drafts, I ask myself, what is quintessentially Tokyo? With that in mind, I peel off and discard what’s unneeded. It’s more chiseling and whittling than writing.

Another way I think of setting is cinematically. When visualizing a scene, I try to think like a cinematographer. (Check out the documentary “Visions of Light” on cinematography.) Lighting, framing, angles, distance should all be part of the description of a setting. Most importantly, a setting should create the feeling of motion. I think in two ways, long shot and close-up. I try to look around a scene to find both a sweeping detail for the big picture (“Lighted signs listing the clubs zipped up the sides of buildings from sidewalk to rooftop.”) And then small, pointed details bring it up close, like the name of a club, “Black Moon, Kingdom Come.” That doesn’t have to be like a helicopter over the city kind of shot, or a long, lingering shot on the face of the heroine, which is a bit outdated, but just a sentence or two that moves the reader’s mind’s eye over the space and then onto a central focus.

To get setting right, I close my eyes a lot when I write, and often go back to places I want to describe. Tokyo is big so that takes a lot of time. I go there and let my emotional response direct me towards details and words. And sometimes I google things. What does a metal lathe look like? I kind of know, but since it’s a key object in one setting, the main character hides money below the lathe, pulling up a few images of lathes and looking them over helps decide how to present that part of the setting. All of this is aimed at making the reader not just see the lathe, but smell the machine oil and dust of the factory floor, to not just see the glass holding cold sake on a humid night, but to taste it. When I wrote: “The sake flowed gently over the top of the lip of the glass into the box, arousing the aroma of cedar and fresh rice,” then the first sip of sake is anticipated. Or, at least, it is for me.

In working with the setting of Tokyo, I am lucky, I feel. The city is photogenic in all kinds of ways, and endlessly diverse. It’s also a huge place, so I’ll never run out of settings. I’ve lived here writing and teaching for long enough to know the city well, but that’s not enough. I always re-view and re-imagine Tokyo from the reader’s point of view. In The Last Train, I wanted to be sure readers could not just see Tokyo, but feel they were in Tokyo, or want to be.

Sunday, June 25, 2017

Sofie Kelly is a New York Times bestselling author and mixed-media artist who writes the New York Times bestselling Magical Cats Mysteries and, as Sofie Ryan, writes the New York Times bestselling Second Chance Cat Mysteries.

Sofie Kelly:What’s in a Name?

I swipe people’s names. No, I’m not some kind of identity thief who will take out five credit cards in your name and order every single product advertised on late-night TV. But if I like your name, it may end up in one of my books.

As a teenager, I wanted to be named Jennifer. That’s because in my mind, girls named Jennifer had long, flowing hair, kind of like Susan Dey of The Partridge Family. (Yes, I know Susan Dey was not named Jennifer. My teenage logic was not necessarily logical.) I did not have long, flowing hair, although I did briefly have an ill-advised Afro after a home perm that went very wrong. But that’s a story for another day.

For me, names often have identities attached to them. Sometimes when I name a character I also give him or her some of the qualities of the real person with that name. For instance, Idris, a name I used for a dead character in the Magical Cats mysteries, came from a tombstone. The real Idris outlived two wives and buried them side-by-side in a double plot. I began to imagine what he might have been like. Practical, obviously. He didn’t buy a new plot or a new headstone when his second wife died. He used what he had. Not overly sentimental, either, I decided, because otherwise I don’t think he would have left his two wives to rest side-by-side for eternity. When I created the fictional Idris, I gave him the qualities I had imagined for the real man.

Hercules always makes me think of actor Kevin Sorbo, from the campy Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. So when I gave that name to one of the Magical Cats, I also said that’s who he was named for. The fact that Sorbo was born and raised in Minnesota, the state where the Magical Cats mysteries are set, just felt like a sign that Hercules the cat had exactly the right name.

On the other hand, the only thing the fictional Marcus from my books and the real Marcus share is their name. The real Marcus is a talented artist and teacher with a funky style and a great sense of humor. The fictional Marcus is a lot more serious and stiff.

Because names can carry their own baggage with them, sometimes I don’t use a name I like. In one manuscript, I named a con artist Peter and realized my mistake almost immediately. I have a friend named Peter; he is kind and gentle and far more likely to give you the shirt off his back than try to scam you out of yours.

It’s not just associations that make me like a name, though. Sometimes it’s just the way the name sounds. Case in point: Benjarvus Green-Ellis (former running back for the Patriots and the Bengals.) I just like the sound of his name when I say it. I like his nickname too: The Law Firm. Both are probably a bit too distinctive to use in a book, though. Then there’s Siobhan. It’s Irish. I love that the name looks one way and sounds another. And not only do I like Ogden Nash’s name, I like his poetry too. They’re both a little quirky.

Are there any names that have a particular association for you? Or maybe your name is one I’d like to add to my “collection.” Please share.

Bernard Besson is an award-winning French writer and former top-level French intelligence officer who writes smart, modern spy novels. In his Larivière espionage thrillers, a team of freelance operatives navigates today’s complex world of espionage and global economic warfare while trying to lead normal lives in Paris. Whether they are unravelling the geopolitical consequences of global warming or discovering the intricacy of high-frequency online trading, they struggle to maintain their independence in a world where the loyalties of official agencies are not so clear and corruption and political machinations are everywhere. Here Bernard shares some of his insights about global warming, writing thrillers, and his novels. Anne Trager of Le French Book interviews Bernard Besson.

One of your thrillers is about global warming, which is quite topical these days. What did you learn from writing it?

The Greenland Breach changed my views on global warming, which I used to consider to be a kind of end of the world. I realized there had been several ends of the world—from both cooling and warming. Humanity is capable of adapting to climate change. It has done so on several occasions in the past and it will do so again in the future. I am more afraid of errors made by governments than I am of changes in the weather. What we have to fear is that nations will not manage to live together peacefully. One of the key battlegrounds is business, and both countries and multinational corporations are fighting for key strategic knowledge they hope to be the first to use. Those with the best information will win the battle.

Why write thrillers?

I got inspired to write my first thriller when I was at the DST, which is French counter-espionage, or the equivalent of the FBI. I was very lucky to be working during the fall of communism and the Soviet Union. We were able to understand how networks of Russian, Bulgarian, Polish, Czech and Romanian spies worked with their allies in France. There were some good stories to tell. Fiction makes it possible to tell more truth than an academic work filled with numbers and statistics—and it’s much more enjoyable to read.

Two of your titles have been translated into English. What inspired them?

In our world of rapid climate change, The Greenland Breach gives you an entirely different perspective on how we are all being impacted. The blood splattered on the ice sheets of Greenland belongs to shadow fighters, mercenaries fighting battles we don’t learn about on the evening news.

Similarly, we are living in an age of technological disruption. In The Rare Earth Exchange, you get a heart-pounding story that could have been ripped from the headlines. What happens when a grain of sand throws off the well-oiled international finance machine?

Friday, June 23, 2017

At the Western Writers of America Conference in Kansas City, MO, Minotaur Books announced that Carol Potenza’s Hearts of the Missing has won the 2017 Tony Hillerman Prize for a best first mystery novel. Minotaur Books is planning to publish Potenza’s debut in the fall of 2018.

Potenza has a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from the University of California San Diego and is now a College Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at New Mexico State University. She was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and she and her husband now live in Las Cruces, New Mexico. They have two children.

The Hillerman Prize is awarded annually to the best debut crime fiction set in the Southwest. In 2004, Anne Hillerman, Tony Hillerman' daughter, launched the first Tony Hillerman Writers Conference. The awarding of the Hillerman Prize became a feature of the conference, before it becoming a part of the annual Western Writers of America conference in 2017.

Wrongful conviction is a nightmare, for the individual and for society.
Long thought to be rare anomalies in an otherwise sound justice system, in fact, convictions of innocent men and women happen with frightening regularity. In Anatomy of Innocence: Testimonies of the Wrongfully Convicted, fifteen high-profile crime writers tell the heartbreaking, harrowing, yet ultimately hope-filled stories of fifteen innocent people, each of whom was found guilty of a serious crime, cast into the maw of a vast and deeply flawed American criminal justice system, then eventually— miraculously—believed and exonerated.

Anatomy of Innocence editors Laura Caldwell and Leslie S. Klinger are joined by Linda Starr, co-founder and legal director of the Northern California Innocence Project, and contributor Laurie R. King to talk about the ways people are falsely convicted, how the Innocence Project works to exonerate them, and what happens to the people they help set free.

Laura Caldwell, bestselling author of 14 novels, practiced as civil trial attorney and is now a professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. She founded Life After Innocence to help exonerees re-enter society and reclaim their rights as citizens.

Leslie S. Klinger is a New York Times-bestselling, award-winning editor of many crime collections who practices business law in Los Angeles. Born and raised in Chicago, Klinger is a longtime supporter of Loyola University Chicago’s Life After Innocence project and has volunteered his assistance on tax matters.

Linda Starr, professor at Santa Clara University School of Law, is the co-founder and legal director of the Northern California Innocence Project.

Laurie R. King is an award-winning, bestselling crime writer and president of Mystery Writers of America, NorCal, sponsors of this conversation along with Book Passage, the bookseller at the venue.

Judith Newton is professor emerita at U.C. Davis in Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies. Judy is at work on the second in the Emily Addams Food for Thought Series. Oink. A Food for Thought Mystery was published in April 2017 with She Writes Press.
Judy is the author of five books of non fiction. Her memoir, Tasting Home: Coming of Age in the Kitchen, came out in 2013 with She Writes Press and won twelve independent press awards. Read her post on Mystery Fanfare: What's Corn Got to Do with It? How Food Can Define a Mystery's Worldview.

Judith Newton:Expanding the Meaning of "Deep Ecology"

My novel, Oink. A Food for Thought Mystery, is a sly send up of universities in general for their ever increasing devotion to profit, individual advance, the big and the strong. It is also an affirmation that communities organized around a thirst for social justice have the power to revitalize a different set of values, values that emphasize community and the common good and that give importance to the smallest life forms. In Oink the latter set of values is embodied in characters who participate in a political alliance among faculty in women’s and ethnic studies and who resist having their programs defunded by a newly corporatized administration. (The story is based on real life experience.)

Since Oink is set at a land-grant university known for its agricultural past and its biotechnological future, I couldn’t help but relate this clash of values to the ecological issues in which so many scientists on campus were involved. Many scientists, for example, in life and in the book, support a view of the natural world which gives value to community, the common good, and the importance of the smallest forms of life. This support is often referred to as “respect for biodiversity,” “biodiversity” being most simply defined as the variety of natural life. Biodiversity is often studied within particular “ecosystems,” communities of living organisms in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment (things like air, water and mineral soil), interacting as a system. To show “respect for biodiversity” means attaching value to the smallest kinds of life in such environments and it means understanding that harm to one form of life poses a threat to all the others to which it is connected.

Some scientists and many non-scientists as well extend “respect for biodiversity” to incorporate “deep ecology” which posits a more intimate connection between humans and the natural world. According to Chris Johnstone, deep ecology “involves moving beyond the individualism of Western culture towards seeing ourselves as part of the earth. . . . It means experiencing ourselves as part of the living earth and finding our role in protecting the planet. “

In Oink, the Native Elder Frank Walker expresses respect for biodiversity and deep ecology both when he speaks about “ecology as a way of thinking about life that brought together the sacred source of creation with plants, animals, human beings, and the light of the sun. . . . We do nothing by ourselves. We are part of a continuum extending outward from our consciousness, living in harmony with living things. Even rocks are living energy . . . we cannot hurt any part of the earth without hurting ourselves . . . always remember your grandmother is underneath your feet."

The novel’s protagonist, Emily Addams, experiences something similar to this when she enters her garden after a particularly hard day: “I opened the dining room sliders and entered the quiet of the yard. Off to the side lay a vegetable garden where full red tomatoes and pale green tomatillos lingered. Black figs hung heavily, like wrinkled pouches, upon the large tree. I could smell their winey ripeness. Song swallows made warbling sounds. A hummingbird whirred in the air feeding on purple salvia, and a bronze monarch silently winged its way past. I listened to the quiet. The garden surged with life, and I was a part of it, receiving and tending to it. But all the while it went on without me.”

That many animals and plants just appear in Oink as the human characters are carrying on their daily business is meant to enforce this deep sense of interconnection between human and natural worlds as is the fact that many characters are described as looking like plants or animals. The Vice Provost with her long nose reminds Emily of a hummingbird. The scientist Tess Ryan makes Emily think of a “young and vigorous stalk of corn,” and the villain, Peter Elliott, is compared to a pig by another character though the actual pigs in the novel are far more charming than he.

Ironically, as Emily observes during a meeting over the latest budget crisis in the university, it is possible to have respect for biodiversity in the natural world without extending that respect to biodiversity in human communities as well. Many scientists at the meeting, for example, anxious to preserve money for their own research projects, propose to offset the budget crisis by raising student tuition and cutting staff, thereby further burdening the staff who remain. Emily regards these sentiments as expressions of disrespect for biodiversity in the university community, a disrespect that is potentially harmful to the university as a whole since its research and administration are supported by and, indeed, dependent on overworked and underpaid staff.

Another example of disrespect for human biodiversity is suggested by the fact that the programs in women’s and ethnic studies are being threatened with extinction, despite their significant contributions to the university, because they are small and staffed by those who have been historically regarded as marginal. Were the women’s and ethnic studies programs to be defunded, Emily points out, the university would be robbed of experts who devote their research to exploring the ways in which gender, race, class, and sexuality structure human societies and culture. The university would also lose those most devoted to mentoring marginalized students and to providing a sense of community to faculty who might feel isolated because of race or gender in their own departments. All of this would undermine the university’s formal espousal of “diversity” as one of its central goals.

Oink, therefore, tries to expand the meaning of respect for biodiversity and deep ecology to include human communities as well, and, in so doing, it implicitly modifies Chris Johnstone’s line about “deep ecology”: Deep ecology, involves moving beyond the individualism of Western culture towards seeing ourselves as part of the earth and part of a human community as well and finding our role in protecting the planet and the people living on it.

Don't miss Prime Suspect: Tennison on PBS Masterpiece. This 3 part starts Sunday night June 25 for three episodes. This series is the backstory to the highly acclaimed series Prime Suspect that starred Helen Mirren. In this new 3- part story Masterpiece dials back the clock to spotlight the influences that turned 22 year old rookie policewoman Jane Tennison in to the savvy, single-minded crime fighter that we loved for seven seasons. This new series stars Stefanie Martini as the rookie WPC Jane Tennison -- the iconic role immortalized by Helen Mirren.

A prequel to one of the most innovative crime series in TV history, the program also stars Sam Reid as Jane's mentor, DCE Len Bradfield; Blake Harrison as Bradfield's volatile sergeant DS Spencer Gibbs. Jessica Gunnis is Janet' female colleague and friend, WPC Kath Morgan, and Alun Armstrong is crime family kingpin Clifford Bentley.

I loved this new series. Prime Suspect: Tennison really captures 1973 in every detail. Hats off to the producers, director, writers, and actors. Each episode is an hour and a half, so I binged. Time well spent.

Prime Suspect: Tennison is based on Lynda La Plante's novel Tennison. La Plante won the Edgar for Prime Suspect.

The 29th Annual Lambda Literary Awards–or the “Lammys,” as they are affectionately known announced the winners last week at a special ceremonyheld at the New York University Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in Manhattan. There are many categories, but of most interest to this blog:

Monday, June 19, 2017

Today is National Martini Day, and perhaps the most iconic Martini is that of James Bond aka 007! The Vodka Martini is as synonymous with 007 as the Walther PPK and the Aston Martin DB5. James Bond first ordered his trademark drink in Ian Fleming's debut novel Casino Royale (1953):

'A dry martini,' he said. 'One. In a deep champagne goblet.''Oui, monsieur.''Just a moment. Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon-peel. Got it?''Certainly, monsieur.' The barman seemed pleased with the idea.'Gosh, that's certainly a drink,' said Leiter.Bond laughed. 'When I'm . . . er . . . concentrating,' he explained, 'I never have more than one drink before dinner. But I do like that one to be large and very strong and very cold and very well-made. I hate small portions of anything, particularly when they taste bad. This drink's my own invention. I'm going to patent it when I can think of a good name.'

Having invented his own signature drink for Bond, Fleming left the reader hanging for the name for the drink until Vesper Lynd entered the novel. Bond thought her name was perfect for his preferred drink:

'Vesper,' she said. 'Vesper Lynd.'... She smiled. 'Some people like it, others don't. I'm just used to it.''I think it's a fine name,' said Bond. An idea struck him. 'Can I borrow it?'He explained about the special martini he had invented and his search for a name for it. 'The Vesper,' he said.'It sounds perfect and it's very appropriate to the violet hour when my cocktail will now be drunk all over the world. Can I have it?''So long as I can try one first,' she promised. 'It sounds a drink to be proud of.'

The 'Vesper' Martini created by Bond in Casino Royale and liked by Fleming:

The CWA Dagger in the Library is a prize for a body of work by a crime writer that users of libraries particularly admire.
The winner of the 2017 Dagger, this year held in partnership with The Reading Agency, has been announced.

HALLIE EPHRON is the New York Times best-selling author of suspense novels including You’ll Never Know, Dear. She is a four-time finalist for the Mary Higgins Clark Award, and her Writing & Selling Your Mystery Novel was nominated for Edgar and Anthony awards. She lives near Boston and was the Boston Globe crime fiction book reviewer for over a decade.

HALLIE EPHRON: How the Idea for You’ll Never Know, Dear crept up on her

Usually my book ideas grow out of my own experience. Giving birth to my first child and going to yard sales inspired Never Tell a Lie. Watching my neighbor get carried out of her house in the dead of winter, and firefighters going in and finding a hoarder’s den inspired There Was an Old Woman. Growing up around the corner from an infamous Hollywood murder (Lana Turner, Johnny Stompanato…) inspired Night Night, Sleep Tight. I’ve always set my books in places I know well: New England, New York City, Beverly Hills.

My new novel, You’ll Never Know, Dear, is my first book inspired by someone else’s experience and set in a place I’ve barely visited.

The idea came from my friend Mary Alice who told me about helping her mother, Blanche, move out of their family home in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Blanche had always been a talented crafts person. An artist, really. She made porcelain dolls, so her house had been full of supplies for doll making—modeling clay, molds, glazes and paints, a kiln, and of course a battalion of finished dolls with their little shoes and embroidered dresses and panties.

My friend told me that her kids refused to sleep in the bedroom where Blanche kept dolls. They said, “You’d wake up and they’d all be looking at you.” Blanche proclaimed those grandchildren of hers “little sissies.”

No sissy herself, Blanche slept with a pistol tucked into an eyeglass case (the kind you squeeze the top to open) under her pillow. Detail upon detail, I could feel Blanche turning into a character into my head.

As my friend was helping Blanche empty her house, under every bed she found boxes and boxes of doll parts. Arms. Legs. Bodies. Heads. Eyeballs.

“Creepy,” I said when she told me that.

“Put it in your next book,” she shot back.

And I did. Blanche is the inspiration for my Miss Sorrel, a 70-something doll maker who suffers no fools in You’ll Never Know, Dear. And those doll parts? They’re a key element in the plot.

The book opens with Miss Sorrel and her grown daughter, Lis, having sweet tea and egg salad sandwiches on the porch of their home. We meet Miss Sorrel for the first time.

Miss Sorrel rocked gently in the glider and sipped sweet tea from a glass dripping condensation. With her powdered face, spots of rouge on each cheek, and lipstick carefully painted on, Miss Sorrel was starting to look like one of the porcelain dolls she so prized. That, despite the un-doll-like creases that ran from the corners of her lips down either side of her chin, the crinkles that radiated from the corners of her eyes, and the skin that had started to lose its grip on her fine-boned skull.

Forty years ago, Miss Sorrel’s younger daughter, 4-year-old Janey, was taken from their front yard. The special porcelain doll Miss Sorrel had made for her disappeared with her. I knew Miss Sorrel and Lis, the older sister who was supposed to be watching Janey, would carry a burden of grief and guilt over the loss.

In the book’s opening scene, Janey’s doll comes back. A woman who delivers it refuses to tell Miss Sorrel where she got it, interested only in the reward Miss Sorrel is offering. The doll is old and battered, creepy the way old dolls can be. Miss Sorrel is sure it’s the doll that was Janey’s. Lis isn’t convinced.

I wanted to set the book in Beaufort, South Carolina. I’d visited there twice, briefly, but a fresh visit convinced me that I’d have to fictionalize it. My prose could never match native son Pat Conroy’s. Plus, one of my characters had to be the sheriff, and Beaufort had a larger-than-life sheriff who served for decades, called himself a white witch doctor, and was so beloved that they named a bridge after him. Anyone who lives within a hundred miles of Beaufort would balk at my fictional sheriff.

So I invented “Bonsecours.” I hope, a ringer for Beaufort. Gracious homes, live oaks, camellias and wisteria; Spanish moss hanging indiscriminately from tree branches, phone wires, and fences. It’s got a charming downtown with a riverfront park, and shrimp boats (Forrest Gump was filmed there). The riverbanks are thick with sticky mud and the river has treacherous, nine-foot tides.

Writing Southern characters was another challenge. I had to slow down and kept telling myself: We’re not in Boston anymore. The narrative needed to be a bit more leisurely and my characters, bless their hearts, had to have southern accents and have mastered the art of the gracious insult.

After I wrote the opening scenes, I had no idea what happened to Janey. But I knew that doll parts would be the key to unlocking the mystery, and that the river would play a part as well. Somehow. It wasn’t until I finished writing the book that I figured out how

Craig Sisterson, organizer of the Ngaio Marsh Award, is a lapsed Lawyer, and major Crime Fiction Fan and Writer who writes for magazines and newspapers in several countries. He also blogs at Crime Watch.

Here's what Craig has to say about this year's long list:

A self-inflicted, self-described cripple dangling off the edge of a cliff above the raging sea near the bottom of New Zealand, clinging precariously to life after getting too noisy with his dangerous neighbours, probably wasn’t the kind of hero Raymond Chandler ever had in mind. “Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid,” wrote the cranky king of crime fiction in “The Simple Art of Murder”, an oft-quoted essay for the Atlantic Monthly published a few short weeks after the end of the Second World War. Seventy-plus years on, the hero of Otago author Finn Bell’s exciting crime debut Dead Lemons is both tarnished, and afraid. And he’s not the only ‘hero’ among this year’s crop of Ngaio Marsh Award longlistees who breaks the classic crime mould. New Zealand authors are unafraid to put their own spin on crime, blending it with other genres, and taking their tales into varied locales and times. A record number of entries gave the judging panel plenty to ponder, with plenty of new blood joining the local #yeahnoir ranks (credit to Steph Soper of the Book Council for the cool hashtag). Candidly, it was a tough ask for our judges to narrow down the longlist, with plenty of good local reads that judges liked missing out. While that’s a great situation for the overall health of New Zealand crime writing, it made for some tough calls, differing opinions, and debate. With such variety on offer (and the fact I’m only personally batting about .500 in terms of correctly picking the winner over the years), I’m not even going to try to play bookie with the contenders. If you’re a fan of crime fiction, or just good writing, I’m sure there’s something here that could tickle your fancy.

The finalists will be announced in August, along with the finalists for the Best First Novel and Best Non Fiction categories. The finalists will be celebrated and the winners announced at a WORD Christchurch event in October.

Father's Day. My father passed away 14 years ago, but I still think about him every
day. He encouraged and supported me throughout my many careers and
educational pursuits, and he always told me I could accomplish anything
and succeed in whatever I did.

My father was the ultimate reader. His idea of a good vacation was sitting in a chair, reading a good mystery. It never mattered where he was, the book took him to other places.

My father and I shared a love of mysteries. Over
the years my taste in mysteries changed. I now read more
darker crime fiction. So many times when I finish a book, I say to myself, "I have to send this to Dad. He'll love it." My father
engendered my love of mysteries through his collection of mystery
novels and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazines. I like to think he's up there somewhere in a chair surrounded by books and reading a good mystery.

Here's to you, Dad, on Father's Day!

FATHER'S DAY MYSTERIES

My Father and Me, many years ago

Father’s Day by John Calvin BatchelorFather’s Day by Rudolph EngelmanFather's Day: A Detective Joe Guerry Story by Tippie Rosemarie Fulton Father’s Day Keith GilmanDear Old Dead by Jane HaddamThe Father’s Day Murder by Lee HarrisDay of Reckoning by Kathy HermanDead Water by Victoria HoustonFather’s Day Murder by Leslie MeierOn Father's Day by Megan Norris Father’s Day by Alan Trustman

Murder for Father, edited by Martin Greenberg (short stories)"Father's Day" by Patti Abbott --short story at SpinetinglerCollateral Damage: A Do Some Damage Collection e-book of Father's Day themed short stories.

Let me know if I missed any titles.

**And a very short list of Crime Fiction that focuses on Fathers and Sons and Fathers and Daughters. Have a favorite Father / Son Father/Daughter Mystery? Post below in comments.FATHERS AND SONS and FATHERS AND DAUGHTERS in CRIME FICTION

His Father's Son by Tony BlackSecret Father by James CarrollThe Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen L. CarterHot Plastic by Peter CraigThe Poacher's Son by Paul DoironLars and Little Olduvai by Keith Spencer Felton The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark HaddonKing of Lies by John HartThe Good Father by Noah HawleyA Perfect Spy by John LeCarreTo Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The Son by Jo NesboThe Godfather by Mario PuzoThe Roman Hat Mystery; other novels by Ellery Queen (Manfred B. Lee and Frederic Dannay)Paperback Original by Will RhodeThe Father by Anton Swenson

Carl-Johan Vallgren is one of Sweden's most loved writers. He has been awarded the Swedish August Prize for Best Novel of the Year, and has been translated into 25 languages. He's also a talented musician with Warner Music.

Carl-Johan Vallgren:

Some five or six years ago I had an experience that changed the direction of my writing. It was a Friday in May, and I’d been working hard the whole week, trying to get a grip on the novel I was writing. This day was no exception. I lost track of time and place, and when I looked at my watch I got a shock. It was 5 p.m.

The kids! I’d been supposed to pick them up from daycare two hours earlier! Twenty minutes later I arrived. My six-year-old daughter and three-year-old son were the only kids left—and exhausted after a long day. I apologized to the daycare attendants, looked at my cell phone, and saw that it was full of texts from my wife: ”Where are you?…Have you picked up the kids?…It´s Shabbas tonight and we need some groceries for the meal.”

I slipped my son into his stroller, grabbed my daughter by the hand, and walked hurriedly down to the Kristineberg metro station. It was late afternoon and the station was full of commuters on their way home for the weekend. I showed my ticket and entered the gate for strollers, stress running through my veins.

At Kristineberg station, the tracks are elevated, and the best way to reach the platform is by using an elevator—at least with two small, tired kids and a stroller. But my daughter had different ideas; she wanted to take the stairs! A quarrel started. I tried to tell her that it was impossible with all the people and her little brother in the buggy, but she insisted, got angry, and started to scream at me. In that very moment, a woman turned up from nowhere. Apparently she had overheard our conversation.

”You can walk the stairs with me if you want,” she said to my daughter with a smile. ”And then we can wait for your father and your little brother upstairs until they come in the elevator.”

She was in her sixties, well dressed, and her voice was soft and friendly. Used to grandchildren, I remember thinking.

And for a moment I was on the verge of letting my daughter go with that friendly middle-aged woman, following the law of minimum possible resistance—until my ”father instinct” kicked in a second later. After all, the person in front of me was a complete stranger.

”Thank you for your sweet offer, but my daughter comes with me!” I said.

I grabbed my little girl by the hand and dragged her into the elevator with her brother, and I pushed the button for the platform level.

The elevator ride took about ten seconds. And in that time the writer inside me ran completely amok: What’s is the situation here? What is the worst case scenario?…What could have happened?…A stressed father leaves his child to walk the stairs with a friendly older woman at rush hour in the subway. And by the time he reaches the platform in the lift, the child has vanished!

I knew it immediately: It was the first chapter of a book—and not just any book. It had to be a crime novel.

I had the whole first chapter in my head before we got home that afternoon. And about a year later, after finishing my other book (a ”normal” novel), I sat down and started to write the first book in the Danny Katz series: The Boy in the Shadows—which starts with the abduction of a child in the Stockholm subway.

Now I’m incredibly proud to present the second book in the series, The Tunnel. Danny Katz is still the main character. And Katz, too, was born that Friday in May. It was Shabbas, and I remember thinking in the elevator: The man to solve the mystery has to be a Jewish guy. I owe that to my children and their mother, because they seem to constantly provide me with literary ideas.

When: Wednesday, June 21, 7 p.m.
Where: RSVP for venue address (Berkeley, CA)
This is a free event, but YOU MUST RSVP to attend.
Bring books by Barry Lancet if you'd like him to sign.
RSVP required. Address of venue sent with acceptance.
RSVP: janet @ mysteryreaders.org

Barry Lancet is a Barry Award­–winning author and finalist for the
Shamus Award. He has lived in Japan for more than twenty-five years. His
former position as an editor at one of the nation’s largest publishers
gave him access to the inner circles in traditional and business fields
most outsiders are never granted, and an insider’s view that informs his
writing. He is the author of the Jim Brodie series: The Spy Across the Table; Pacific Burn; Tokyo Kill; and Japantown,
which received four citations for Best First Novel and has been
optioned by J.J. Abrams’s Bad Robot Productions, in association with
Warner Brothers.

The latest entry in the James Brodie series is The Spy Across the Table
(Simon & Schuster) sends Brodie careening from Washington,
D.C. and San Francisco to Japan, South Korea, the DMZ, and the
Chinese-North Korean border, in a story that predates recent headlines.
Lancet is based in Japan but makes frequent trips to the States. BarryLancet.com on Twitter
@BarryLancet. Check out the Video of Barry Lancet below.

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Across the US, independent
bookstores are having a comeback. Often combining bookselling with a
cafe or bar, these stores will usually stock rare presses and
obscure publishers, alongside classics and bestsellers. The below are no
exception, but also have that little something extra which makes them
stand out from the rest.

Chris Goff writes International thrillers and the birdwatcher's mystery series. Her debut thriller, DARK WATERS, is set in Israel, smack dab in the middle of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Dubbed “a sure bet for fans of international thrillers" by Booklist, it was nominated for the 2016 Colorado Book Award and Anthony Award for Best Crime Fiction Audiobook. RED SKY, which opens in Ukraine with Diplomatic Security Service Agent Raisa Jordan investigating the downing of a commercial airliner with a fellow DSS agent onboard. Traveling through Eastern Europe and Asia, Jordan tests the boundaries of diplomacy as she races to prevent the start of a new Cold War. Catherine Coulter had this to say, "Breathtaking suspense, do not miss Red Sky." The book will be released on June 13, 2017.

Chris Goff: RED SKY: Is Diplomacy Enough?

At the end of my first thriller, DARK WATERS, it's clear that Diplomatic Security Service Agent Raisa Jordan is headed to Ukraine on personal business. So when People’s Republic Flight 91 crashes in northeastern Ukraine with a U.S. diplomatic agent on board, it stands to reason Jordan is sent to investigate. The agent who died on board the flight was escorting a prisoner home from Guangzhou, China, along with sensitive documents, and it quickly becomes apparent that the plane was intentionally downed. Was it to silence the two Americans on board?

The idea for RED SKY came to me shortly after the July, 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. The plane was shot down over Ukraine while on a routine flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. The aftermath raised a lot of questions about who was responsible and what should be done. It happened at the time of Russia's incursion into Crimea, and several international investigations determined that the plane was mistakenly blown out of the sky by pro-Russian insurgents in possession of a Buk missile launcher. The Russians and insurgents denied responsibility, countering that the plane was being followed by a Ukrainian military jet and placing the blame squarely on Ukraine if for no other reason than the plane crashed there. In the end, Malaysia proposed that the UN Security Council set up an international tribunal and prosecute those deemed responsible—an idea that gained a majority vote, but was ultimately vetoed by none other than Russia. Yes, Russia.
Does anyone else think it ironic that Malaysia's only recourse was to turn for justice to a UN Security Council that was controlled in part by the very country perpetrating the injustice?

But I digress.

I've always been fascinated by geopolitics. Conflict driven by human and physical geography is a theme that crops up in all of my books—most notably in my thrillers. In DARK WATERS, Jordan finds herself smack-dab in the middle of the Israel-Palestine conflict. In RED SKY, she finds herself in the midst of the Ukrainian crisis. Both places wrought with emotion, exacerbated by any number of key issues, and offering a breadth of opportunity for developing complex and motivated characters that must face incredible adversity. One could hardly ask for more conflict—the basis for great story.

I was lucky enough to spend time in both Israel and Ukraine. I lived in Tel Aviv for two months, during a time when the suicide bombings were gearing up. My family and I experienced firsthand the fear of going about daily tasks: taking a bus, going to the grocery store, drinking coffee in a street-side café. Every venture out was filled with risk, yet we were infused with a sense of defiance as well as the buzz of anxiety and excitement. In Israel the divisions were clear. Not so in Kyiv. While we were in no danger there, the people were somber. Many seemed torn by conflict. While strongly nationalistic, many Kyivans had also grown up under communism. Many of their monuments pay tribute to Russia, and most eastern Ukrainians have Russian family and friends. And, much like during our own Civil War, in Kyiv there were families divided, with brothers fighting brothers, and fathers against sons.

Unfortunately, sometimes, diplomacy is not an option, as it soon becomes clear in RED SKY. This book is an international thriller "packed with pulse-pounding thrills and a white-knuckle joyride for fans of Gayle Lynds." Strap yourself in. RED SKY hits the stands June 13th.

Authors Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, and Deborah Levy are among a roster
of names made Royal Society of Literature fellows for 2017.

The newly-elected fellows will be introduced at the Society’s Summer
Party on Monday 19th June. While the RSL chair Lisa Appignanesi reads a
citation for each fellow, they will be invited to sign their names in
the roll book which dates back to the Society’s founding in 1820. New
Fellows sign the RSL roll book using either T S Eliot’s fountain pen or
Byron’s pen.

The RSL will be hosting the evening on Monday 19th June at the
Bloomsbury Hotel 16-22 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3NN at 6pm.